In honor of Earth Day, the new documentary film Tomorrow opens April 21 at the Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills. Directed and narrated by actress Mélanie Laurent (Inglorious Basterds) and activist Cyril Dion, the documentary sheds light on creative and successful small-scale solutions to the world’s biggest environmental challenges. The filmmakers’ explorations were motivated by a 2012 Stanford study which declared that the world is in the midst of a sixth extinction event and that by the end of century, even part of humanity could disappear.
The film uncovers positive initiatives that address change in the areas of Agriculture, Energy, Economy, Democracy, and Education. Along the journey, we are introduced to community efforts around in the world in France, Finland, Denmark, Belgium, India, the UK, the US, and Iceland, among other regions.
We see urban agriculture in Detroit that is filling the blight left behind by loss of the automobile monoculture industry. Now, public gardens are found throughout the city. In the UK, one group of activists has convinced their city leaders to make all public land available for publicly shared gardens.
Experts point out that economies need diversity just like agriculture — not all of the power should be in the hands of oligopolies or central banks. For instance, local currencies exchanged in closed systems are sprouting up in fascinating contexts, creating complementary locally independent economies.
The documentary film Tomorrow takes us on a tour of European and American communities, companies, and individuals who are already creating a new tomorrow today. The filmmakers conclude that a new world order requires that power and authority not be just the privilege of a few, but where everything is linked and interdependent like the complex diversity in nature. All of the alternative solutions exposed in Tomorrow are interesting, achievable, yet not widely known. The movie is eye-opening and inspiring.
The film presentation is timed to coordinate with both Earth Day and the release of the companion book Tomorrow: All Over the Globe, Solutions Already Exist by Cyril Dion.
Karen Henry is an Associate Editor at LA YOGA who volunteers in a variety of capacities for nonprofit organizations and artists around Los Angeles. She practices yoga as a counterbalance to her daily impact sports and is a mother of four grown children who also practice yoga . Now, she’s working on teaching yoga and joy of life to the grandkids!